OAYP’s Drug and Alcohol Peer Education Project is about young people being positive role models and learning from each other. Young people already have the natural communication skills needed to connect with their peers, and the peer education project is about finding useful ways to use these skills. Our Peer Education project will work with school pupils between Year 8 and Year 11 to think of creative ways to prevent drug and alcohol misuse.

Drugs and alcohol are readily available to young people, and it is often hard to say no, especially when popular role models are misusing drugs and alcohol too. The peer education project is about enabling young people to be positive role models to their peers by tutoring them about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and enabling them to make safe informed decisions.

The Peer Education Project will be running in secondary schools across Oxfordshire and below are some details about what it will involve:

• Year 10 and 11 pupils will receive drug and alcohol information workshops (approx. 12 hours + a residential) and will progress to become Peer Educators to year 8 pupils.
• Drama workshops will be the main tool of information delivery to the Peer Educators. From our experience we find that this dynamic approach to information delivery is highly effective and engaging.
• The project aims to include some pupils who are considered to be at risk of becoming NEET and/or who are disengaged from education.
• The young people will produce a piece of interactive Forum Theatre to share with other pupils.
• There will be a residential weekend to focus on the performance devising as well as some outdoor team activities.
• The programme will enable the young people involved to gain an ASDAN accredited qualification.
• These workshops, performances and peer tutoring sessions will raise awareness of the support services already in place for young people, such as those available through the school councillor, school nurse and the healthy schools team.

For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the project please click here

More Information

1. Projects
2. Peer Education
3. Angling Development
4. Arts Project
5. Community Link-Up Project